Monday, July 24th, 2023

Starting mileage: 10869, Distance traveled: 0 (not counting Lyft rides)

Miles walked: 7.5

Certainly not…but we tried. Loaded with suggested destinations from colleagues and friends, we started the day heading out to the Gateway Arch, walking through a very diverse set of areas, on the edge of downtown St. Louis. We passed housing projects and recently built duplex developments, walked under highways and railroads, saw Hamilton’s Steakhouse and Bourbon Bar, and finally passed Busch Stadium which hosts the Cardinals. We arrived at the Arch, which we all agree shouldn’t be a National Park, given it’s human-made, but that didn’t stop us from getting our passport stamp (on paper because we forgot our passport…) We were impressed by so many aspects of the monument, from the architectural marvel itself to the engineering feat getting so many people to the top in a safe and organized manner.

The recently renovated museum underneath the Arch was excellent. It related the history of St. Louis from its 1764 founding through it’s critical role in the migration westward in the 1800s. Upon exiting, we captured a few more photos of the arch and the Mississippi Riverside.

We found a fabulous spot for lunch called BLT (Breakfast, Lunch, and Tacos). We ate everything from breakfast to tacos to salad to shrimp grits, plus delicious local beer.

After lunch, we headed to the City Museum, an enormous (600,000 square foot, 10-story) indoor/outdoor jungle gym of sorts made from all manner of repurposed architectural and industrial objects. It was one of the most bizarre, interesting and exciting places we’ve been. It’s very hard to describe but we captured all kinds of pictures of the kids clambering in, on and through many of the areas, from a treehouse, to a dragon cave, to an aquarium, to a 10-story slide, to a rooftop jungle gym. Secret tunnels and caves riddle the entire place, with many taking you to areas in other floors or even outside the building envelope. Susan and David braved a 3-story tube to get up to the praying mantis on the roof, but they both concluded they were too old and creeky, and perhaps not the target audience for these amusements. Susan got lost three times and we lost the kids repeatedly, but not permanently, thank goodness.

Perhaps a better way to capture the scale is with this stop motion video of the kids clambering up the inside of a giant dome and exiting out the roof.

In the evening we met Erik, Sara and Selma for a traditional Italian dinner on The Hill at Rigazzi’s, known for its Frozen Fishbowls, 32-ounce goblets filled with beer or your favorite mixed drink. It was a great end to a really fun day.